Riot control

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French CRS in riot control gear, with helmets ready

Riot control refers to the measures used by police, military, or other forces to control, disperse, and arrest civilians that are involved in a riot, demonstration, or protest. Law enforcement officers or soldiers have long used less-lethal weapons such as batons and whips to disperse crowds.

For the last several decades, riot control officers have also used tear gas, pepper spray, plastic bullets, and electric Tasers. In some cases, riot squads may also use water cannons, armoured vehicles, police dogs or mounted police on horses. Officers performing riot control typically wear protective equipment including: riot helmets, body armour, gas masks and riot shields.

1 Equipment
2 Tactics
3 Research
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Equipment

For protection, officers performing riot control will often wear protective riotsquad helmets and carry riot shields. These are designed to protect the wearer from those dangers that come from direct melee and hurled objects. To provide even greater protection, the protective equipment often provides ballistic protection. If tear gas or other riot control agents are to be used, gas masks may also be worn.

One of many additional concerns is to prevent people in the crowd from snatching officers' sidearms, which may be stolen or even used against the police. In a very heavy crowd, the officer may not be able to see who is responsible for snatching a weapon, and may not not even notice that it has happened. For this reason, riot police may have holsters with positive locking mechanisms or other extra means of retention, if their agencies are in a position to afford such tools. However, this can be a trade-off that increases the amount of time needed to draw the sidearm in an emergency.

The initial choice of tactics determines the type of offensive equipment used. The base choice is between lethal (e.g. 12 gauge shotgun) and less-lethal weaponry (e.g. tear gas, pepper spray, plastic bullets, Tasers, batons, and other incapacitants). The decision is based on the perceived level of threat and the existing laws; in many countries it is illegal to use lethal force to control riots in all but the most extreme circumstances.

Special riot hand weapons include the wooden or rubber baton ; the African sjambok, a heavy leather or plastic whip, and the Indian lathi, a 6 to 8-foot long cane tipped with a metal blunt. Vehicle-mounted water cannons may serve to augment personal weapons. Some water cannons allow police to add dye to mark rioters or tear gas to help disperse the crowds. [1].

In major unrest, police in armoured vehicles may be sent in following an initial subduing with firepower. Occasionally, police dogs or mounted police are deployed. At least in Western countries, it is less common to use police dogs in modern riot situations. This is because police dogs can become too vulnerable during riots, as crowds restrict the dogs' mobility and put them at risk of attack from more than one direction at the same time.

[edit] Tactics

Mounted riot police used to disperse a crowd during protests in Edinburgh

The front-line officers in a riot control are often fully armoured and carry weapons such as batons, designed to be in direct contact with the crowd. These officers use force and intimidation to subdue rioters and subsequently allow less heavily armoured, more mobile officers to arrest people. In face of a greater threat, the riot police will be backed up with other officers equipped with riot guns to fire tear gas, rubber bullets, plastic bullets or "beanbag" rounds.

As a less aggressive step, mounted police may first be sent into the crowd. The might and height offered by the horse are combined with its training, allowing an officer to more safely infiltrate a crowd. Usually, when front-facing a riot, officers slowly walk in a line parallel to the riot's front, extending to both its ends, as they noisily and simultaneously march and beat their shields with their batons, to cause fear and psychological effects on the crowd.

The French CRS's tactics against a long demonstration march is to attack it at several points and chop it into segments, rather than to merely try to block it at its front end. Since the advent of artillery, straight roads have been of notable importance in city defense and control. Upon coming to power, Napoleon III built great avenues, referred to as anti-riot streets, into the troublesome quarters of Paris. ^[1] The wide straight roads also allowed for cavalry charges to subdue rioters.

[edit] Research

Research into weapons that are more effective for riot control continues. Netguns are non-lethal weapons designed to fire a net which entangles the target. Netguns have a long history of being used to capture wildlife, without injury, for research purposes. A netgun is currently in development for less-than-lethal riot control. Pepper-spray projectiles are a projectile weapons that launch a fragile ball which breaks upon impact and releases an irritant powder called PAVA (capsaicin II) pepper. The launchers are often slightly modified .68 caliber paintball guns.

Stink bombs are devices designed to create an extremely unpleasant smell for riot control and area denial purposes. Stink bombs are believed to be less dangerous than other riot control chemicals, since they are effective at low concentrations. Sticky foam weapons are being tested, which cover and immobilize rioters with a gooey foam.

Low frequency sound cannons are weapons of various types that use sound to injure or incapacitate subjects using a focused beam of sound or ultrasound. While described as "non-lethal", they can still kill under certain conditions. Active denial systems (ADS) are a non-lethal, directed-energy weapon developed by the U.S. military. The ADS directs electromagnetic radiation, specifically, high-frequency microwave radiation, at a frequency of 95 GHz, which causes a burning sensation on the subject's skin. Dazzler lasers are directed-energy weapons that use intense light to cause temporary blindness or disorientation of rioters.